The Jokihat Assembly byelection on Monday has turned out to be a test of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s popularity among 17% of the minority population in the State. The campaign ended on Saturday, and the result is due on May 31.
About 70% of the electorate in the constituency is Muslim, and the Janata Dal(U) has been bagging this seat since 2005.
Mr. Kumar, with over half-a-dozen Ministers of his Cabinet, has been campaigning hard to win the seat. The Chief Minister wants to send out a message that even after joining hands with the BJP, his popularity has not waned among minority voters.
Taslimuddin’s turf
Mohammad Taslimuddin, former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP from Araria, who died last September, has been the tallest leader not only in Jokihat but also in Araria, Katihar, Purnia and Kishanganj, all minority-dominated Seemanchal (border) districts of north-east Bihar.
Taslimuddin and his son Sarfaraj Alam, irrespective of the parties they contested from, had represented the Jokihat Assembly seat nine times.
Mr. Alam quit the JD(U) and vacated the Jokihat Assembly seat to contest the Araria Lok Sabha byelection after the death of his father. He won the seat as an RJD candidate, defeating BJP candidate Pradip Singh with a comfortable margin. This time, the RJD has fielded Shahnawaj Alam, younger brother of Mr. Alam, for the Jokihat seat and the JD(U) has put up a former village head, Murshid Alam, who has several criminal charges from gang rape to idol theft pending against him, to bag the seat.
“My government has earmarked ₹800 crore for minority welfare … I have maintained communal harmony in the State at all costs,” Mr. Kumar said at a thinly attended public meeting on May 24.
Public pulse
However, Mohd Aadil, 36, sitting in the crowd, raised a question, “Then how did all the communal tensions happened in over 10 districts after Ram Navmi festival celebration this year?”. Mr. Aadil’s voice was not loud enough to reach Mr. Kumar but he got a round of applause from the crowd.
When leader of the Opposition Tejaswi Yadav addressed a public meeting at the same venue a day later, the crowd was more than three times that of Mr. Kumar’s audience. Mohd Gaushul Alam, 50, who was among the audience at the meeting said, “After joining hands with the BJP, he [Nitish Kumar] has lost all his political credibility among our community.”
